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The International Advertising Association has announced plans to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the depiction of women and girls in movies and advertising. The IAA Gender Sensitization Drive will involve a series of seminars across India geared toward content providers.

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President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum to provide for the continued promotion of gender equality. Under the order, the Secretary of State will pick an Ambassador at Large to lead the Global Women's Issues office, the White House blog reported. It also ensures that efforts between women's equality and the country's development goals are in sync and launches a group focused on international gender issues.

Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan are leading a call for President Barack Obama to appoint a female to head the Federal Communications Commission. "It's long past the time to close the gender gap in our nation's leadership and in the media and telecom industries' leadership," the three founders of Women's Media Center wrote in a petition featured on Change.org.

A joint effort between NATO and the Afghan Ministry of Defense is offering pilot training at Afghanistan's Shinhad Air Base. Lt. Nilofor Rhmani is one of five women in the training program. Pakistan has embraced new roles for women over the past several years, including preparing women as fighter pilots in the Pakistani Air Force.

The end of the military's ban on women in combat will likely lead more women veterans to enter the world of entrepreneurship, writes Bill Murphy Jr. "Opening the combat arms to women likely means more women will wind up serving in the military as a whole, so expect to see more female veterans launching new businesses in the years ahead," he writes. In addition, allowing women in combat will pave the way for women to take more leadership roles in the military and in the defense industry, he writes.

As one young girl explains in a succinct video made at a toy store, not every little girl loves pink or princesses and it's time toy makers need to know girls like superheroes too. But whether Riley's impassioned speech about gender equality in the toy aisle resonates in the toy market remains uncertain. While well-known London toy seller Hamleys replaced its girls and boys toy areas with a gender neutral section, Lego is aiming to lure young female builders with pastel-colored building blocks. The big issue, says neuroscientist Lise Eliot, is the impact that stereotypically gendered play patterns have on young boys and girls.